Looking for modern EQ help

Hello There!
I suppose I am a returning player but I would consider myself more of a newb since I really dont have much knowledge past GoD. I've been playing avidly on p99 and I said in top tier guild on there (and I'm aware that doesn't equate to much in modern EQ but I'm malleable!) And I'm looking into getting up to speed and trying to tackle some of this modern content. The revamped kunark expansion piqued my interest so experiencing that is important to me.

Background information:
Im playing mainly on the povar server but have some twink projects and a well geared GoD shaman and PoP geared mage on trakanon that I dont have much interest in anymore. I have an 89 rogue, an 83 enchanter, a 78(?) Mage and a 60 paladin on povar currently. I wouldn't declare any particular character my "main" , but that kind of leads into my first question. I also have access to 1 heroic character but I am only willing to use that on a fresh character and am not willing to use it on any character I have currently unless someone can give me a good enough reason that I am not aware of. I am currently auto granting all my AA's on toons.

Questions:
1. On p99 I am a main enchanter and I absolutely love this class but the feeling I get from modern EQ is that it is not functionally the same class I enjoy on p99. I really enjoy soloing a lot and on p99, the enchanter allows me to do that and be very successful, not merely *able* . And the lack of groups (in my own experiences on here) makes me question whether or not I would survive as a group dependant class (one bug reason why I gave up on my rogue). I am curious about the meta of enchanters these days but am also curious about the current state of paladins, beastlords, and necromancers as other options for my main. I am aware I can play them all and try them out but I'm more of an "all in" type of player and don't like to spread myself too thin between alts.

2. Once I have a main chosen what's a general path that I should follow to prepare myself for raiding in the endgame ? Focus on hitting 100 asap? Take a detour at level 90 to work on an epic ? Make sure to get my faction with Christmas Elves of Chaos before level 100? Etc. I have practically no knowledge of the content past GoD and am just looking for guidance on where to xp, what to work on etc.

3. Do pets / charm pets still take xp from you if they out dps you ? On p99 I know I have to break charms then nuke for full xp but not sure if that was changed.

4. This may be a dumb question and subjective but I have some daybreak tokens (1400ish) on my paladin / mage account and am curious if there's anything in the daybreak store that is particularly awesome looking or useful I could spend those on? (I refuse to use the luclin graphics so mounts are out.) I seem to recall one illusion item giving a pretty good buff associated with it, gnoll warrior or something maybe?

5. In association with question 1, is there any particular 2 box class that would be extremely beneficial to leveling alongside ? Mainly asking because Im not a huge fan of mercs.

6. Not so much a question but if there is anyone out there who would like some company or doesn't want to level alone, I am always lfg when I log in and I'm more than happy to assist in anyway I can if I am able! I tend to log on Marfyre, Amuril, and Beveln more times than not.

Sorry for the very long winded post and I appreciate any and all answers because anything you may have to offer will likely be a big help to me!

Happy Hunting!

Great post, and I have nothing to add myself, as I'm one that would also greatly benefit from these answers!! (also a returning old player that doesn't know wtf is going on)

Hi,

Just for general info...Last year I did a series of videos for new and returning players. Nothing fancy or even pretty to look at, but I hope it helps a little bit. (No sound on the one for the maps.)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjweIUTUNdOJVH-akG_GrZG9pLu9LanVv

I can also highly recommend FcsevenXIII's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/bseven10/videos

He has some useful info on cool clickies and other things.

DandinMindfire has great info on the enchanter class in modern EQ: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZyXbS3UvHYeyqT7sNEpkbA/videos

Also try the class specific page.

To answer specific questions:

1) Enchanters are still the masters of crowd control. They provide excellent damage support (aDPS) to caster groups. After level 90, they are quite strong with personal DPS, both with nukes and DoTs. They have the options of using charmed pets and the enchanter pet, which is pretty beefy when equipped with mage gear and a fair amount of AAs.

2) I'd recommend first checking out any anniversary quests that you'd like to look at (Fcseven's channel has some info on Drunkard's Stein and stuff) since that ends on 11 May. Find a supportive guild if you haven't already. Try to get to 100+, stay active on the forums here, and do your research on 3rd party websites on anything interesting that you discover.

3) Charmed pets do not take XP away from you. They can do 99% of the damage. You can invis yourself (with Boots of the Mosquito or an AA or a potion) to break invis and finish off the mob for the full XP. That has not changed.

4) Large bags are useful. Character slots are useful. One item that I like is Dreamcatcher Nimbus. It adds a little bit of extra mana regen and only costs 150. Some illusions add AC and other nice stats. Read item descriptions.

5) Druid and Enchanter is a great duo. Magician and Enchanter is a great duo. (I box the 3 classes together.) There are other opinions floating around.

6) I don't play on Povar, but I wish you luck. Reach out and send tells, make yourself useful, and build up your /friend list.

Welcome back.

If you are on Povar, you are fortunate. We have one of the best guilds on Everquest here called Triton.
You are probably not looking to raid hard-core, but if you get to level 110 you will be eligible for the Saturday pick up raids organised by Rivitt.

Good way to get some great gear and learn from some top players.

It's either you missed to tell what your final goal is with your toons, or I missed in this wall of text. Would have been good to know in order to give a useful opinion.

However, live EQ is all about having a tank and dps. For the tank the most commonly used has to be sk (in group game). While paladins/warriors are good too, they miss utility like innate invis, snare, fd, levi. When restricted to two boxing and not using a merc, the second toon has to be dps + heals, which would be druid or shm.

Im interested in playing at the highest end. In pretty green to all this new stuff but I still have 30ish levels to hone my skills. Like I said, the ring of scale and empire of kunark expansion piqued my interest because kunark is my favorite expansion in all of everquest and to do it again but revamped with new challenge sounds awesome ! Enchanter and paladin are my solid top 2 picks but beastlords and necromancers interest me as well.

Part of what I'm looking to find out is:

-desirability of said classes in the raid scene (grouping is pretty straightforward and non-existent from what I've seen)
-what is important to learn / have as a top end raider?
-what is the realistic dynamic of each class at the high end? Ie. I've heard enchanters are more of a nuke / dot class than the CC/Charmed monster class that I'm familiar with.
-besides a cleric, is there any class that is underplayed and highly valued in a raid setting ?
-Im not all that interested in a shadowknight so how does a paladin fare vs sk and warriors?
-any useful tips like best places to level from 80+ , better than the default UI that I am allowed to use etc

So if I want to simply 2box then a cleric wouldn't be ideal. I do have a 78 mage that I could throw in the mix , my main concern with 3 boxing is how difficult it will actually be esp since enchanter is the primary character. Maybe 3 box ench / mage / bard ? Something I could essentially just drag around for buffs maybe ?

Start playing regularly and you'll find that all of the above questions will soon answer themselves.

Enc is still a very great class to play and played correct can solo very good ...

YiMin

As it seems you are bound to enc, just go ahead and play it. Pal + enc is decent enough.